"Calm down guys, calm down!" Laughed Isaac as Powers draw breath to yell 'shields up'.
"These are projectile weapons. They don´t even scratch our hull. So no need to rush anything."
"I am unbelievably s..s..sorry." Meant Keswick nervously shivering and fearing that Powers would change this decision now. "They associate nothing g..g..good with ships."

But the captain calmed him with a casually gesture of his hand. "If I had a grudge against everyone who shot at me, I wouldn´t talk to half of the people in this shuttle." Explained Powers.
"Stay calm, Keswick." Dudley smiled. "Everything is alright, we will still help."

"Thank you." Keswick meant and looked up to the display on the ceiling. The fire had stopped and it seemed that the crowd outside reloaded their weapons.
"Okay, let´s use the break. Open the doors."
"Yep, because the best countermeasure to weapons is a friendly greeting." Isaac meant rolling his eyes.

"Hey, we face them with love. What can they do against that?" Meternagel asked as the door slowly opened.
"Probably shoot." Isaac mumbled.
"Okay, Keswick, you go first… and please tell them to stop shooting. Isaac you go after him with me. You´ll translate. Understood?"

"Got it." Both of them said and Keswick set foot on the ramp and into the bright wide light that illuminated the outside.
"S..S..Stop shooting." Keswick yelled as he walked with arms outstretched in front of him like the antennas of a bug down the ramp.

"Keswick? Keswick!" A hoarse voice called out. "Guns down, it´s Keswick."
"Thank god…" He panted and put his arms down. "I thought for a second you´d s..s..shoot me."
"Well, I had my hand on the trigger already." The voice said and to Keswick drove a little pedestal that was equipped with wheels and a big monitor which showed the face of an elder flea in a brown, threadbare suit.

"Of course you h..h..had." Keswick meant unamusedly.
"Okay, so what is that, don´t tell me you made it to get an enemy ship." The flea started laughing. "Or did you call your alien friends?"

"I t..t..told you a thousand times, I´m not an alien!" pouted the former T.U.F.F. scientist.
"Okay, but seriously, from where do you got this?"
"Actually this is not his ship." Said Isaac and all guns went up again. "Wait, no need for that, we are friendly."

"Indeed, we are not here to run you deeper into the misery." Meant Powers and was swiftly translated by Isaac.
"W..What are you?" mumbled the flea dumbfoundedly.
"They are aliens, not h..h..hostile, put the guns down." Appeased Keswick. "I can assure you, please…"

"He is right." Translated Isaac for Powers. "We just crashed onto this planet… wait, actually we tried to land but in the moment of…"
"Isaac." Powers sighed what called Isaac back to reason.
"Yeah sorry." The scientist cleared his throat. "What I wanted to say is, we do not want to fight with you."

"Do you think we can trust them?" asked the flea skeptically while he eyed Powers and Isaac still in fear.
"Y..Y..Yes they are!" Keswick meant beaming a big smile right at the flea. "You will not believe who´s aboard of this s..s..ship!"

Dudley heard this from inside the shuttle and sighed. That was his sign to step into the bright light and look into the eyes of the descendants of him and everyone else he knew, or at least who was left of after this attack.

He wondered though, why did Keswick announce his arrival like this. Maybe he had told them stories about him, god knew there were a lot of funny stories. He maybe had reach a certain degree of fame through that.

Dudley stepped onto the ramp and tried to get used to the bright light. He had to wink a few times and during every wink he asked himself why Meternagel had to turn the lights up that much. The people in the crowd must have had the same problem because they and Dudley gasped at the same time as they saw each other.

"Chief!" the dog meant confusedly while the chief´s only reaction was pointing his gun at Dudley.
"No n..n..no no." Keswick quickly said and pushed the gun with gentle strength back to the ground.
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!" screamed the chief terrified. "YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! DEAD! I HEARD YOUR DEATH SCREAMS!"

"Wow… what a nice greeting." Whispered Powers.
"Chief chief, calm d..d..down." Keswick meant who finally had taken the gun away from the flea.
"How is that possible!" The chief asked while grabbing the cloth of his coat at his chest. "How… how…"

"There is a plausible reason for that, chief. Just c..c..calm down." Keswick smiled at the three who stood next to the ship and added. "He took it pretty g..g..good."
"You define this as a positive reaction?" Isaac´s face reflected his statement.

Dudley´s confusion has grown beyond any value he had ever known before. He maybe could explain himself why Keswick was still alive but the chief? The chief was already old as he went away and he didn´t knew that Keswick was making research about a life extending drug, he had at least bragged once about it. There was no plausible explanation why the chief was still alive.

"Okay…" panted Dudley and who started getting headaches from all this. But there should be something that would amplify these headaches even though it let his heart dance.
"Dudley…" A small female dog in a camouflage jacket, which she wore together with big blue framed sunglasses, stepped insecurely towards him.

"Mom…" Gasped Dudley.
"Dudley!" cried the dog, jumped at him and hugged him.
"Aww, mom, Dudley, what a lingual repertoire." Mumbled Isaac who had a hard time watching these two hug.

"Isaac, come on, let them have this moment." Powers meant and patted in his violent way onto Isaac´s shoulder.
"Mom…" stammered Dudley. "How… how…"
"My baby boy is back…" cried Dudley´s mother Peg and hugged him so tight that you´d need a hydraulic spreader to detach her from him.

"God mom…" He sighed happily. "It´s so good to see you again. But…"
"Yes sweety?"
"How… how is it possible that you are still alive."
"Honey, what do you mean?" Asked Peg confusedly.

"You must be about 650 now how is it possible that you are still alive?"
The expression on Peg´s face was more than just not amused as she heard that. "Have I never told you that you shouldn´t talk to a woman like that?"

"No, I don´t want to insult you but…" Dudley pried his mom, with a little help of pure muscle power, of him and put her back on her feet. Then he pointed at the chief. "I mean, the chief should be 660 and…" He looked into the crowd and saw a tall rat there. "Snaptrap should be around 634… I mean he was my age back then…"

"Dudley, what are you t..t..talking about?" asked Keswick scratching the back of his head.
"I´m talking about the fact that I was gone for about 600 years and you all are still alive. I mean I am sad about that but…"

"What 600 years?" Peg asked and looked at Dudley like he just said the stupidest thing ever. "Dudley, you were just 16 years gone."
Again Dudley´s head hurt but this time it also started turning.
"Okay, hold on everybody, we should not discuss this here." Isaac called as he saw Dudley´s troubled and confused face. "We do not have enough space in our shuttle so could we maybe use one of your rooms?"

"No." The chief said sternly and he let it sound like 'I don´t trust you'. "Keswick, Peg and I will discuss in your shuttle."
Isaac wanted to say something as but before he could Powers laid his hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear what made the scientist sigh.
"Okay, but just if you send the rest of this mob away."

The chief nodded, apparently he was okay with that deal. He had to send away his men but at least he didn´t have to let the strangers into his base.
"Get back to what you did before the alarm guys." He called to the resistance members.

As the crowd slowly resolved Powers cleared his throat. With a gesture he showed the little delegation to follow him into the ship where he sat down on his seat.
"Please, take a seat." He meant and the board computer started translating again. The chief and Peg looked surprised at the ceiling.

"Yay… technology." Meant Isaac mockingly as he also sat down.
"Could you stop being a dick?" Dudley mean irritatedly.
"Dudley!" Peg scolded her son harshly. "Don´t say these things."
"Mom…" sighed Dudley as he heard René giggling from the seat in the back.

"Okay everyone." Powers clapped his hands loudly together and everyone in the shuttle fell quiet and looked at him. "I think it´s time to get rid of some misunderstandings."
"Indeed." The chief nodded. "First the 600 years thing."

"605 years ago we scanned some black holes…" Powers started telling them a short version of the last 600 years. Because of the presence of Dudley´s mother he left away the brutal and gory parts. In the end it was actually just a CV then a real story. "The last mission, that brought us here, was the disabling of an enemy superweapon by pushing it into a black hole. Unfortunately it pulled us with us and well, now we are here."

With widely opened eyes and open mouths the three guest sat there and looked at Powers before they slowly turned their head to Dudley.
"That is… well… wow." mumbled the chief impressed.
"Wait but Dudley… that would mean you are 640 years old!" Peg gasped.

"And still good looking." Sneered Meternagel.
"Wasn´t cheap." Shrugged Dudley more out of a reflex. This was an old joke when it came to speaking about ages.

"But how is that p..p..possible?" Asked Keswick interestedly.
"That is not important and I may explain it to you when I know if your mind can even grasp the several steps necessary for that." Isaac meant while rolling his eyes arrogantly.

"Ah, Isaac, then please…" Powers said with a biting tone as he looked at the scientist. "Then, please, be so kind and tell us what is important right now."
"Of course, Sly." Said Isaac and stood up. "For us, as a group, is the tactical situation of this so called resistance is important. For Dudley on the other hand, something else."

"Oh really?" Dudley meant irritatedly. He also stood up and steeped close to Isaac. His angry stare met Isaac´s cold analytical glance. "Then please tell me, Isaac, tell me what you think is important for me."

"The answer to a question you have not asked yet. And I wonder why you did not ask it yet." Isaac replied calmly.
"Oh, and what question?" hissed the dog.
"'Where is my fiancée?'" Said Isaac and then sank serenely back into his seat.

Dudley froze directly on the spot. His whole mind had to reset. How could he forget asking about her? "Where is Kitty?!" Dudley asked almost screaming as he turned to Keswick, Peg and the chief.
"As far as I know she was hijacking a lizard p..p..patrol." Meant Keswick. "I haven´t heard from her in a while, but I guess she´s on her way b..b..back."

"As far as I know she´ll take the southern tunnels." The chief meant. "You can wait for her in decontamination lock 3."
"How do I get there?"

"Just down this tunnel to the bunker and then straight through the hallways… I think we even have signs there, just follow them." Peg meant. "But Dudley…"

But before his mom could say anything more the dog had left the shuttle.
"Well…" Sighed Powers. "I will not write that into my log as disobedience. Anyway, we should maybe talk about our further actions."

The chief nodded. "As far as I understood, you wanted to help?"
"Indeed. We don´t just owe that to Dudley but also the motives we have devoted us to. So, what is the situation?"

While the chief started to elucidate the situation to Powers, Dudley was already almost at his destination. He pushed himself past the people that stood in the hallways and threw surprised looks at him, probably because of the black leather uniform he wore.

But these looks didn´t matter for him, he even ignored them. The only important thing for him was seeing her, after all these years. The mere thought about holding her in his arms again was a reason to run even faster.

Decontamination lock 3 was a not a room for cleaning people from the wastelands dirt and bacteria like Dudley had imagined it. It was actually just a big cave in the tunnel that was separated from the smaller cave -in which the exit door of the bunker was- by a red freight container that was crammed into the tunnel between the caves.

It seemed that the decontamination lock was just the big cave and the container.
Dudley looked around in the cave with exit door. It was empty, no sign of Kitty. Dudley knew that he should actually wait in this room but he simply couldn´t.

He wanted to run to the door of the container but in this moment the doors opened and a tall cat that looked as stern as worried. The cat pointed with furiously at the wall of the cave. "You stay there while I get the chief. Don´t dare to move. This is an ORDER, got it?!"

A young white dog with green eyes followed his order and ran to the wall. He flopped on the floor and rolled up to a ball crying.
"Excuse me…" Dudley said to the cat but he wasn´t honored with an answer. The cat simply jogged on. "Son of a…" cursed the dog quietly and then sighed. He turned to the boy that cried. Maybe he knew something.

"Hey, boy." Dudley meant a walked to the sobbing ball of fur. "You come from outside, right? Have you seen Kitty Katswell?"
"Yes…" cried the dog.

"Great." Smiled Dudley widely. "Can you tell me where she is?"
"She…She…" The little dog started crying more.
"She?"

"She got captured by the enemy."
"What?!" Dudley asked and felt like someone just punched him laughing in the face. Kitty was so close but now. The dog gritted his teeth. Not now, not this time. He wouldn´t let anything get between him and her.

Angrily he grabbed the dog in front of him by the collar. "Tell me when and where this happened." He growled threateningly.
"About… 10 kilometers away from here." Sobbed the terrified little dog.
"Good." Dudley meant and put him on his feet. "Show me the way."

"But… I…"
"Do I look like I´m joking around?! Show me the fucking way or I make you show it to me!" the yelled and the little dog tried not to start crying again as he did so.
"O..Okay." He sobbed.
"Great, let´s go." Meant Dudley and followed the dog.